Customer Reviews

Time Management for Unmanageable People: The Guilt-Free Way to Organize, Energize, and Maximize Your Life

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The key to the book is that you have to find a time management system that works for you. If you have trouble following the traditional methods (personal organizer, lists, etc.), then throw them away and find your own method, without a feeling of failure or of being defective. There are many tips in the book on finding that method, with suggestions that have worked for other people. (There are three of us now in my group using a variation of the post-it method!) In addition to writing about getting organized, Magee-Cooper and Trammell include ways of getting rid of unnecessary mental baggage (why it's not bad to procrastinate, for example) which were very enlightening. In addition, the book is quick to read (concise and well-written) and very entertaining, with some fun drawings that many people may identify with!

This is absolutely the best time management book for right brain, creative people like me. I read lots of books and articles on time management, and benefited from many tips. But the fit was never just right. This book addresses monochronic time (linear, clock time), and polychronic time (what creative types deal with). And lots of other key topics that hit home. It answered many questions for me (Why was I always buying some new organizer, or gadget to help me organize myself and my environment? Why could I not just work top-to-bottom on my To Do list?)
I bought my first copy about 8-9 years ago. Now, I am buying my fourth copy, as I keep giving them away to folks like me.
If you are a creative person or right-brain person, you should read this book. If traditional time management techniques don't really "fit" you, you should read this book.

I love this book! It is well-organized, easy reading. I have read several time management books, including Covey's 7 Habits, over the last three years trying to discover ways to help myself and my subordinates understand, develop and practice good time management skills. Time Management For Unmanageable People not only provides you with great time management tips, it contains valuable insights as to how different people view and use time. If you have been struggling with understanding why some people seem to naturally be better time managers than others, this is the book for you. I used this book as one of my resources in developing a time management training course for our organization's management level personnel. Buy it, read it and recommend it to others -- you won't regret it.

This book contains many useful tips for people like me--digressive, expansive, creative types. Perhaps the previous (negative) reviewer just has a (very) different style. Sure, for the more linear mind, traditional time management strategies probably work well. But not necessarily for me!

Even more than specific tips, I learned a lot here about how to value my style of thinking and being, and how I could take advantage of my creative mind for time management. The authors do not pretend that having an expansive, discursive mind, it is always _easy_ to keep all of life's little details together. They just provide lots of practical ideas that make it _easier_, by working _with_ the creative mind.

I found this book very different from all other time management books I have ever seen. What it gave me most of all, was an increased sense of faith in my personal style. I get the feeling that the authors are anything but lazy.

I liked this book a great deal.

Looking at the trees, _Time Management for Unmanageable People_ was a jargon-laden, philosophically confused waste of time. But the forest wasn't so bad. The basic premise, that time management advice is too often useless and even harmful when applied to creatively disorganized people, seems sound. The book primarily functions as an alternative guide to time management for the creatively disorganized, discussing both why traditional techniques fail and suggesting some alternative methods. Unfortunately, both the theory and practice of the book tended to be shallow at best. So the primary virtue of this book certainly lies in its basic approach to the subject of time management: individual people need to find methods of time management that suit their unique strengths and help them overcome their weaknesses.

If you are a "right-brained" person and have tried to follow other left brained time management programs with only fair success, this is the book for you. This author makes time management fun and flexible. I read about her book in another great time managment book by Lee Silber. You'll enjoy this book and get many good tips to help you be more productive.

There are some definite pros and cons to this text. It was not at all what I expected, but I did find some value in it. Overall, the authors were so politically-correct as to be irritating to me, and the worldview - especially in the first section - was subtly anti-biblical. (This will, of course, be viewed by some readers as a strength and by others as a weakness.)

For my purposes, there are two great weaknesses here. The first is that the bulk of the book is simply not practical; it's theoretical. Some of this theory was very interesting, but it wasn't what I was looking for when I purchased a book about time management. The second is that the examples all relate to the corporate world. As a full-time wife and mother, I would have appreciated some examples demonstrating how the theories apply to homemaking and family.

I did, however, derive one significant benefit from the book which was completely unexpected. The portions about the importance of PLAY were very enlightening for me. Having been diagnosed with adrenal fatigue (read: stress syndrome), I have been made profoundly aware of my own dysfunction in this area of "play" or "relaxation." The authors of this book have not only presented the importance of play in a very balanced manner, they have also offered practical suggestions for regaining one's ability to "play."

I am glad I bought the book, but if specific, practical methods of time management are what you seek, you might want to look at others, instead.

By the time they seek the help of a professional organizer, many people have already read countless books about getting organized, only to become frustrated when they're unable to apply the authors' suggestions. While teaching time management courses, author Ann McGee-Cooper noticed that the prescribed systems worked well for half of the class, but that the others had reverted to their previous methods in less than a week.

Studies show that the two sides of the brain control different modes of thinking, and that most individuals have a preference for one side or the other. The preferences located on the left side of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® type chart (Extraversion, Sensing, Thinking and Judging) correspond to left brain thinking, and those on the right side (Introversion, Intuition, Feeling and Perceiving) correspond to right brain thinking. It is not surprising that many time management experts are left-brain thinkers for whom organization comes naturally. Unfortunately, their suggestions are often ineffective for right-brain thinkers, due to the different ways they process information. McGee-Cooper recognized this fact, and set out to write a guide on time management for right-brained thinkers. As a right-brained individual who has overcome traits of dyslexia, hyperactivity, and attention deficit disorder to become a successful author, lecturer, business consultant, creativity expert and business owner, Ann McGee-Cooper knows her subject matter well, and presents her information clearly and with a sense of humor.

This book is fun, and so is McGee-Cooper's approach to time management. She encourages the reader to make important information stand out on his or her calendar by using highly visual cues such as colors, pictures, symbols, or stickers, and to reduce stress by incorporating play time into daily life. With self-assessments, helpful hints, time-related quotes, and humorous illustrations, even left-brained thinkers are sure to enjoy reading this book and to find some ideas for fine-tuning their own time management systems.

I thought this book was great. I had the opportunity to hear the author speak years ago and I felt like she was talking to me with her message - both in person and in the book. I'm a very logical person who never felt comfortable organizing in a file-laden, logical way. This book showed me how to use my strengths instead of fighting them.

Of all the time management books I've read, this one didn't scare me or made me feel guilty. One of the important things I've found helpful in this time management book is to reduce stress by injecting fun in organizing and doing everyday things. She encouraged her readers to add visual clues to various tasks in order to make these things easier to remember and fun to do. Schedules and Things-to-do-lists don't have to boring, that is, if we put our creativity in it. Also, the author tried to explain some theories on how we tackle time management and organization in our lives, which I found interesting. I mean, this is not just a how-to book, but it also explains the why.

Also recommended:
Achieving Objectives Made Easy! Practical goal setting tools & proven time management techniques